Charity Quilt with Mom

A while back my mom cleaned out her hobby room and several of her quilt tops came home with me to finish. I'm slowly working through them. This was a quick fat quarter pattern that made a nice scrappy lap quilt.

I used a pink thread on both the front and back for the quilting and did an all over free motion flower design.

The backing is a solid pink Kona from my stash. I don't know the official color name for this one. This picture shows the color a bit stronger than it really is. This next picture is closer to the real thing.

It was not quite wide enough for the quilt so I added a row of teal squares down the center.

The finished quilt is about fifty inches square.

You can see the quilting motif a little better here as well as the solid blue binding.

Here is another attempt to capture the quilting design. All of the pictures were taken after the quilt was washed. I like the cozy, crinkly result but you really lose the distinctness of the quilting after washing for this quilt.

I left this quilt with mom last night. She is thinking about what she will do with it. It may end up in her church nursery, and she might keep it home for a while to cover up with while she is reading. I'm thankful for the quilting practice when she passes on quilt tops for me to finish. It's nice to have projects with no deadline, no rules, and no pressure, even though all of my quilts are really that way. Any deadlines, rules, or pressure are self imposed. Perhaps there is a lesson for me to learn here!

Quarter Log Cabin Quilt Finish

 In June, I asked our Believe Circle group to send in quarter log cabin blocks. They had my blocks along with an inspiration quilt for the color palette.

The result is this sweet quilt with rows slightly offset.

The layout and piecing of the quilt top was easy. I knew I wanted to sort the blocks by color keeping the darker ones in the center and the lighter ones to the outside. I also wanted a little bit of variation in the placement of the rows. The hard part was deciding how to quilt it. I considered doing something consistent in each block like circles or flower petals but in the end decided I wanted some sort of all over design.

After spending a few days looking at the quilt top,

I started noticing a trend

in the blocks.

There were just a few flowers with petals.

That decided it. I quilted a giant flower on the quilt. At first I thought I would do all of it free motion, but after quilting the spiral for the flower center, I backed off and did the rest with my walking foot.

The center was defined with a plate and a blue marking pen. The petals were cut out of paper and pinned to the quilt top. Longer petals stretch to the corners while shorter ones extend to the sides of the quilt.

This picture was taken before the quilt was bound and washed.

This one was taken after the quilt was bound and washed. I think it is easier to see the design after it is washed. The soft crinkles help the design stand out more. It was hard to not continue adding quilting but I was determined to keep it simple. Once the flower was stitched, I added a second line of stitching in the petals and two lines to shadow and fill in between each petal.

The quilting is hard to see on the front, but that's okay because the blocks are the star of the show anyway. The next decision was binding.

I decided on this print by Brandon Mably. I tried different pinks and reds and determined that a large scale design that had both colors worked best. The red blocks are in the center of the quilt and I hoped the binding would draw your eye out from the center.

The finished quilt is 46" x 49", just right for a baby or young girl.

The label has been added. This quilt will ship out tomorrow on its way to a new home.

Thank you to all of the Believe Circle members. Each month is an adventure and I love creating beautiful quilts with you.

A Few Quilted Flowers

This quilt top waited quite a while to make it's way back under the machine to be finished. I knew I wanted to do some sort of motif in each block and these flowers ended up being just the right thing.

Rather than use the same thread color for the entire quilt, each block is quilted in coordinating, or sometimes contrasting thread.

The blocks in this quilt top were made by the quilters and stitchers of the do. Good Stitches Believe Circle. They sent their blocks to me...ahem...last December. It's all good now though.

The back is three long panels of purple. Pay no attention to those feet. They usually get cropped out. Must have forgotten to do that on this picture.

 The flowers show up nicely on the back too, especially on the darker purple.

Just added a label this morning.

This quilt has already been washed and dried to give it that soft crinkly look and feel. It will be sent off to My Very Own Blanket next week.